The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1887-12-02
FRENCH FOUNpLiNGS.
Little WAITS Raised Up by the state to he.
come Good Citizens.

The story OF Rousseau and his children
has caused the French system of dealing
with deserted infants to be regarded bya
lrcat many Englishmen as official conni-
ance at private immortality. 1t is not
v,ryboly who has read "Jeane Jacques
Confession" but most people who have
lair knowledge OF things in general
have heard that to escape the response
hl ty OF ringing up his children he had
them taken to the founding hospital
very soon after their birth. Many things
have changed in France since Rousseau's
time, but this institution remains very
much as it was then. The method he
adopted of losing his children without
mourning any risk OF consequence is still
permitted by law and taken advantage
OF. Much as it may have been abused,
it originated in Christian charity. In the
middle ages there was a stone at Notre
] anne upon which deserted infants were
laid with the knowledge that they would
lie taken care of, and the practice of
leaving them
AT THE DOORS OF CHURCHES,
which was then common, has been fol-
lowed in much later times D'Alembert,
ior instance, was found upon the steps Of
Jean-la- Rond In 1888 st. Vincent of
Paul founded hospital for these waits
Of humanity, and this was the origin OF
the institution known as lies Enfants
Trouves." Now it is termed "Les Enfants
Assisters" In Rousseau's time, and as
late as 1887, children were left here and
no questions were asked. Upon a bell
being rung a revolving cylindrical box
op ned, and the infant being placed
within, it was turned around with the
box and was lost to view. Nothing could
be more simple, nothing less calculated
to cause embarrassment or shame to the
visitor. The same apparatus is still in
use, but the person who leaves the infant
can no longer leave without being seen.
Any woman who takes child there is
assumed to be the mother, and she is
questioned with the hopa that she will
S ate her name, but she is not obliged to
do so. She is, however, compelled to
listen to little sermon on the heartless-
ness OF abandoning her ohsprings to
strangers and voluntarily losing all trace
o. It's IDENTITY; in fact, an effort is made
to turn her from her purpose and to
brng her to sense OF her maternal
duties. Sometimes she is persuaded 10
keep the child, and ii she pleads poverty
a small monthly allowance is granted her.
1t may be well to draw attention here to
the iayt that as regards ill gitimatG OIL
spring in France the law only recognizes
the res onsibilt ty OF one parent ma mcly
tin mother. Supposing the child 10 have
been let at the institution it is en,rred
ul on the register merely as number,
and henceforth
THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC ASSISTANCE
is its guardian. The children, unless
their state is such as to need medical
treatment, are only kept in Paris a few
. days. They are quickly placed in the
ia lies OF peasants, who undertake to
perform the duties of parents toward
them in return for remuneration, which
is usually from fifteen francs to twenty
francs a month. There are inspectors
who visit the foster parents periodically
charges. Unless there are special reasons
for removing them the children, even
when the period OF infancy is past, re.
main in the same hands. They are sent
o the communal schools until the age of
l3 and then the administrator puts them
the way OF earning their livelihood,
out does not relinquish its authority over
Them. In the large majority OF cases the
boys are kept to agricultural pursuits,
and as shepherds or farm laborers be-
come identified in lasting manner with
the peasantry. AS a general rule it is
considered advantageous for them to
enter the service OF the foster father, be-
cause from long association he is sup
posed to hold them in some affection
In addition to board and lodging they re-
ceive wages, the bulk OF which, under the
direction OF an inspector, is deposited in
the "caisse d'epargne" and which cor
responds to the savings bank in England.
Thus it frequently happens that when
these boys enter the army as conscrpts
at the aye OF q, they own little fortune
ly richer than the majority OF young men
! Of their own class who were not aband-
oned in their infancy Mall Gazette